Saturday, August 25, 2007
Begining of a New Season--2007
Millsaps and Mississippi College collide in the Backyard Brawl, while Mississippi State hosts LSU in a marvelous start of the 2007 college football season before Sept. l when Ole Miss invades Memphis and Southern Miss hosts University of Tennessee-Martin in Hattiesburg.
The Majors and the Choctaws rivalry goes back many years nd then was halted, but it back in full swing now and that is good. LSU invades Starkville, ranked as one of the best teams in the country, a potential national champion, and could be vastly over-confident, offering Sylvester Croom's warriors to spring an upset which would go down as one of the best victories ever for the underdog Maroons.
Ole Miss faces an old rival in the Memphis Tigers and must beware of losing the inaugural battle before Southeastern Conference warfare begins. Before the SEC competition starts, how-ever the Rebels engage the University of Missouri, which is regarded by Lou Holtz as a possible national contender.
Southern Miss has a golden opportunity in Knoxville the following week in its game with the University of Tennessee which will be returning from the long trip to California to play the Golden Bears, also a potential national contender. Southern, ranked as the best in Conference USA in pre-season polls, over the years, has chalked up major upsets.
Ed Orgeron named Seth Adams as his starting quarterback and this offers Seth the chance to become the next Farley Salmon, the battling little field general who led the 1948 Rebels to a 8-1 season after Charlie Conerly gradated. Salmon, Buddy Bowen, and Bobby Jabour battled all spring and the starting QB job was not decided until fall practice.
Johnny Vaught switched formations after Conerly left,the single wing to the split-T because of the personnel on hand. Salmon had played wingback. Bowen was the best blocking back in the South with a Jacobs Trophy to prove it. Salmon could run, fake, improvise. Adams in the spring game, threw short passes and this blended with a running game featuring Ben Jarvis Green Ellis, who joined Kayo Dottley as a 1-000 yard producer. Kayo did it twice. So can Ben Jarvis if he stays healthy.
Ole Miss' offensive and defensive play seems vastly improved. The Rebels also play LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida at Vaught Hemingway Stadium this fall.
There is nothing like the start of a new season. Several weeks earlier I again attended the Big Ten's Media Luncheon with a packed ball room in Chicago to hear the ll head coaches outline their hopes and dreams of 2007. The best of the Big Ten will likely play the best of the SEC in several of the Bowl games once again. Michigan is the pre-season choice to prevail with Chad Henne, the quarterback, a likely Heisman Trophy candidate.
I have attended this luncheon since it started, dating back to the College All-Star week in the Windy City. The Big Ten has the best Luncheon every year. Joe Paterno and Lloyd Carr of Penn State and Michigan stole the show with Lloyd introducing his wife who, he said, came to the Luncheon because Paterno was her favorite speaker. Joe added later that he did not blame her for liking the way he talked since she had to listen to Lloyd at home.
Joe has recovered from his broken leg injury suffered on the sidelines during a game. He will not think of retiring as long as Bobby Bowden is coaching at Florida State. Both want to go down as the 1-A's coach with the most victories. Bowden was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame last year with the new 75-year old rule in place. So was Paterno, but he could not attend the Induction Dinner in New York, so he will be honored at the Foundation's Golden Anniversary Banquet at the Waldorf Astoria this December.
Paterno is a member of what I call the Boys of 1926 which also includes Tony Bennett, Hugh Hefner, and Mississippi Red and others. Marilyn Monroe was also born in 1926 and we would have waived the rule if she was still with us. She died at 36.
While in Chicago I dined at Gene and Gorgetti's one of the best restaurants in the country.I make it a point to dine there each summer while attending the Big Ten Media Day gathering.
Let the new season begin.
---30---
The Majors and the Choctaws rivalry goes back many years nd then was halted, but it back in full swing now and that is good. LSU invades Starkville, ranked as one of the best teams in the country, a potential national champion, and could be vastly over-confident, offering Sylvester Croom's warriors to spring an upset which would go down as one of the best victories ever for the underdog Maroons.
Ole Miss faces an old rival in the Memphis Tigers and must beware of losing the inaugural battle before Southeastern Conference warfare begins. Before the SEC competition starts, how-ever the Rebels engage the University of Missouri, which is regarded by Lou Holtz as a possible national contender.
Southern Miss has a golden opportunity in Knoxville the following week in its game with the University of Tennessee which will be returning from the long trip to California to play the Golden Bears, also a potential national contender. Southern, ranked as the best in Conference USA in pre-season polls, over the years, has chalked up major upsets.
Ed Orgeron named Seth Adams as his starting quarterback and this offers Seth the chance to become the next Farley Salmon, the battling little field general who led the 1948 Rebels to a 8-1 season after Charlie Conerly gradated. Salmon, Buddy Bowen, and Bobby Jabour battled all spring and the starting QB job was not decided until fall practice.
Johnny Vaught switched formations after Conerly left,the single wing to the split-T because of the personnel on hand. Salmon had played wingback. Bowen was the best blocking back in the South with a Jacobs Trophy to prove it. Salmon could run, fake, improvise. Adams in the spring game, threw short passes and this blended with a running game featuring Ben Jarvis Green Ellis, who joined Kayo Dottley as a 1-000 yard producer. Kayo did it twice. So can Ben Jarvis if he stays healthy.
Ole Miss' offensive and defensive play seems vastly improved. The Rebels also play LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Florida at Vaught Hemingway Stadium this fall.
There is nothing like the start of a new season. Several weeks earlier I again attended the Big Ten's Media Luncheon with a packed ball room in Chicago to hear the ll head coaches outline their hopes and dreams of 2007. The best of the Big Ten will likely play the best of the SEC in several of the Bowl games once again. Michigan is the pre-season choice to prevail with Chad Henne, the quarterback, a likely Heisman Trophy candidate.
I have attended this luncheon since it started, dating back to the College All-Star week in the Windy City. The Big Ten has the best Luncheon every year. Joe Paterno and Lloyd Carr of Penn State and Michigan stole the show with Lloyd introducing his wife who, he said, came to the Luncheon because Paterno was her favorite speaker. Joe added later that he did not blame her for liking the way he talked since she had to listen to Lloyd at home.
Joe has recovered from his broken leg injury suffered on the sidelines during a game. He will not think of retiring as long as Bobby Bowden is coaching at Florida State. Both want to go down as the 1-A's coach with the most victories. Bowden was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame last year with the new 75-year old rule in place. So was Paterno, but he could not attend the Induction Dinner in New York, so he will be honored at the Foundation's Golden Anniversary Banquet at the Waldorf Astoria this December.
Paterno is a member of what I call the Boys of 1926 which also includes Tony Bennett, Hugh Hefner, and Mississippi Red and others. Marilyn Monroe was also born in 1926 and we would have waived the rule if she was still with us. She died at 36.
While in Chicago I dined at Gene and Gorgetti's one of the best restaurants in the country.I make it a point to dine there each summer while attending the Big Ten Media Day gathering.
Let the new season begin.
---30---
Sunday, August 19, 2007
An Unidentified Man
BY JIMMIE McDOWELL
In mid-August the Jackson newsaper included in a possible homicide story of a woman that an unidentified man had also been found deceased in his Belhaven apartment. His name was not listed.
The Unidentified man was a longtime friend of mine, a member of the famed Belhaven Coffee Club, a World War Two Veteran in the European theater, a decorated Top Sergeant, who came to Mississippi after the war to play football and baseball for Hinds Junior College and later Mississippi College. His name was Leonard (Mac) McCummas, a Pennsylvanian from the coal mine country in John O'Hara's home town of Pottsville. I went to Pottsville for football dinners for a quarter of century while working for the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, spending many enjoyable times all of those years.
Mac McCummas coached briefly on the high school level before selling insurance for a while at the same time Eagle Day was selling all of his Ole Miss pals insurance. Mac later opened a TV repair service with the quote: "When your TV is nervous, call Mac's TV repair service."
For 10 years Mac rode with Gentleman Jack Giddens to Vicksburg and then over to Louisiana to buy lottery tickets, pursuing jackpots, which they never hit. They played the slots in the Hill City going to and from Louisiana. Too bad Mississippi did not have a Lottery, particularly with the price of gas today. It would keep a lot of business in the Magnolia State.
Jack Giddens, we have mentioned before was voted Belhaven's most handsome man when GI's were accepted after the war. He got this honor over two eventual lawyers John Countiss and Sebastian Moore. The Janitor came in fourth.
Mac McCummas and Lester Madison, also a Top Sergeant, who also served in the ETO, swapped war stories over many cups of Coffee at Jimmy Parkin's drug story. The club continued to gather there when Bane's bought the story. I always enjoyed the pleasure of their company and would toss in some Navy experiences of my own in Greece, North Africa, England, and the North Atlantic. I was not the best shot on our Armed Guard gun crew but ranked tops respresenting our country on Liberty. For instance, the first red-headed sailor in Greece.
Mac McCummas did not want to go home to Pennsylvania. One by one his relatives there passed away,including a brother who was a Catholic Priest. He told me his days at Hinds and Mississippi College were the happiest times of his life. He was one of Coach Stanley Robinson's men and he was proud of it. He went to Arkansas State briefly after Hinds, but switched to MC because of a Choctaw coed.
His funeral was held at St. Peter's Cathedral with Reverend Brian Kaske officiating. His friend Waddell Nejam and his Family stood up to be counted in making the arrangements. Billy Hal Robbins and Ben Farmer also helped in the process. Too bad Mac's pals at Fenian's were unaware of his passing.
We will all miss Mac McCummus--no longer the Unidentified man from Belhaven
-30-------p
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In mid-August the Jackson newsaper included in a possible homicide story of a woman that an unidentified man had also been found deceased in his Belhaven apartment. His name was not listed.
The Unidentified man was a longtime friend of mine, a member of the famed Belhaven Coffee Club, a World War Two Veteran in the European theater, a decorated Top Sergeant, who came to Mississippi after the war to play football and baseball for Hinds Junior College and later Mississippi College. His name was Leonard (Mac) McCummas, a Pennsylvanian from the coal mine country in John O'Hara's home town of Pottsville. I went to Pottsville for football dinners for a quarter of century while working for the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, spending many enjoyable times all of those years.
Mac McCummas coached briefly on the high school level before selling insurance for a while at the same time Eagle Day was selling all of his Ole Miss pals insurance. Mac later opened a TV repair service with the quote: "When your TV is nervous, call Mac's TV repair service."
For 10 years Mac rode with Gentleman Jack Giddens to Vicksburg and then over to Louisiana to buy lottery tickets, pursuing jackpots, which they never hit. They played the slots in the Hill City going to and from Louisiana. Too bad Mississippi did not have a Lottery, particularly with the price of gas today. It would keep a lot of business in the Magnolia State.
Jack Giddens, we have mentioned before was voted Belhaven's most handsome man when GI's were accepted after the war. He got this honor over two eventual lawyers John Countiss and Sebastian Moore. The Janitor came in fourth.
Mac McCummas and Lester Madison, also a Top Sergeant, who also served in the ETO, swapped war stories over many cups of Coffee at Jimmy Parkin's drug story. The club continued to gather there when Bane's bought the story. I always enjoyed the pleasure of their company and would toss in some Navy experiences of my own in Greece, North Africa, England, and the North Atlantic. I was not the best shot on our Armed Guard gun crew but ranked tops respresenting our country on Liberty. For instance, the first red-headed sailor in Greece.
Mac McCummas did not want to go home to Pennsylvania. One by one his relatives there passed away,including a brother who was a Catholic Priest. He told me his days at Hinds and Mississippi College were the happiest times of his life. He was one of Coach Stanley Robinson's men and he was proud of it. He went to Arkansas State briefly after Hinds, but switched to MC because of a Choctaw coed.
His funeral was held at St. Peter's Cathedral with Reverend Brian Kaske officiating. His friend Waddell Nejam and his Family stood up to be counted in making the arrangements. Billy Hal Robbins and Ben Farmer also helped in the process. Too bad Mac's pals at Fenian's were unaware of his passing.
We will all miss Mac McCummus--no longer the Unidentified man from Belhaven
-30-------p
ppppp
ppppp
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Summer Meeting in Lafayette County
BY JIMMIE McDOWELL---Gas costs twenty fie cents more a gallon. At least that was the case when Ole Miss letter winners gathered for their annual meeting in Lafayette County as compared to mid-Mississippi petrol costs.
Mid=South sports scribes who covered the Rebels in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties are all about gone now except for Mississippi Red. I appreciate being included on the invitation list. Wobble Davidson prided himself in turning boys into men. I wrote about this crew in high school and college. They were champions ion those days and they are still now.
Walter Stewart, David Bloom and George Bugbee and Magnolia State writers and editors Carl Walters, Purser Hewitt, Dick Smith, Odell McRae, Leonard Lowery, Charlie Kerg, Bill Ross, Arnold Hedrman, Lee Baker, Wayne Thompson, Charlie Gordon, Clint Blackwell, Ace Cleveland, Dick Lightsey, Billy Ray, Ken Ernst and Paul Tiblier have all passed away.
Jack Hairston of Greenwood and Jackson has retired in Jacksonville, Fla. Mississippi Red was gone for 30 years but has been back 15 years. During that time in New York, New Jersey and Tennessee I still covered Mississippi football from time to time.
Eagle Day and his mid-Fifty crew gathered at the Downtown Grill for a dinner in memory of Frank (Bruiser) Kinard, the first Mississippi football player elected to both College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. Billy Kinard and his wife Kay were thee to represent the family. Billy, of course, was a key member of the Rebels' Cotton Bowl champion team and later the Ole Miss head football coach. He was also a member of Ole Miss' first College World Series baseball team.
This baseball team was well represented at this reunion with Bernie Schrieber, the second baseman, coming all the way from South Dakota to be there. Bernie and shortstop Pepper Thomas provided a great double play combination for Tom Swayze's baseball Rebels and they enjoyed seeing each other again.
Eagle was also a key member of the football and baseball teams as w ere Eddie Crawford and Billy Kinard. Crawford, the retired senior associate athletic director, gave an excellent report to the group as did George Smith, the Director of the Loyalty Foundation/ Ray Poole, honored a year ago, was on hand with his bride Wanda. His nephew Paige Cothren missed the meeting as he completes another book.
Buddy Alliston came down from Memphis. He was the Outstanding Lineman in the Cotton Bowl victory over John Vaught's TCU alma mater while Day was the MVP and has been elected to the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
Chancellor Robert Khayat and Warner Alford, director of Alumni Affairs, were roommates at Ole Miss. They chaired the other M Club meeting of the late Fifties and this group voted to include the 1961 and 1962 Rebels in 2008 when they gather next summer. At this party wee such stalwarts as Charlie Flowers, Jake Gibbs, and Billy Ray Adams, all All-Americans, Bobby Ray Franklin, Ralph (Catfish) Smith, Chico Taylor, Louis Guy. Richard (Possum) Price, Wes Sullivan, Art Doty, Wayne Terry Lamar, Charlie Duck, Allen Green, and others.
Frankie (Hobby Horse)( Halbert was also there. He was Vaught's good luck player who was included on the travel squad. One day Vaught was putting the travel list on the wall and Frankie asked the coach "what time are we leaving.Coach" Vaught replied: What do you mean WE?"
Halbert countered:" Aren't you going, Coach?" Vaught added Halbert to the list.
Kent Jr. Lovelace, a member of both groups, was also there. He had a blowout driving from the Coast near Florence. I asked him did he change the tire and he said he did not do manual labor. His pal, Warren (Beaux) Ball missed the meeting because he was enjoying his summer home in Colorado where his neighbors were Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford once lived. Frank told me at Wellington Mara's funeral in New York that he had moved.
Reunions of champion teams are terrific. 0-11 teams never have reunions. Ed Orgeron hopes that his current Rebels can develop in to championship teams. Seth Adams seems to have won the Quarterback job just as Farley Salmon did in 1948 when Ole Miss went 8-1 and was not invited to play in a Bowl game. Time will tell.
---30---
Mid=South sports scribes who covered the Rebels in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties are all about gone now except for Mississippi Red. I appreciate being included on the invitation list. Wobble Davidson prided himself in turning boys into men. I wrote about this crew in high school and college. They were champions ion those days and they are still now.
Walter Stewart, David Bloom and George Bugbee and Magnolia State writers and editors Carl Walters, Purser Hewitt, Dick Smith, Odell McRae, Leonard Lowery, Charlie Kerg, Bill Ross, Arnold Hedrman, Lee Baker, Wayne Thompson, Charlie Gordon, Clint Blackwell, Ace Cleveland, Dick Lightsey, Billy Ray, Ken Ernst and Paul Tiblier have all passed away.
Jack Hairston of Greenwood and Jackson has retired in Jacksonville, Fla. Mississippi Red was gone for 30 years but has been back 15 years. During that time in New York, New Jersey and Tennessee I still covered Mississippi football from time to time.
Eagle Day and his mid-Fifty crew gathered at the Downtown Grill for a dinner in memory of Frank (Bruiser) Kinard, the first Mississippi football player elected to both College and Pro Football Halls of Fame. Billy Kinard and his wife Kay were thee to represent the family. Billy, of course, was a key member of the Rebels' Cotton Bowl champion team and later the Ole Miss head football coach. He was also a member of Ole Miss' first College World Series baseball team.
This baseball team was well represented at this reunion with Bernie Schrieber, the second baseman, coming all the way from South Dakota to be there. Bernie and shortstop Pepper Thomas provided a great double play combination for Tom Swayze's baseball Rebels and they enjoyed seeing each other again.
Eagle was also a key member of the football and baseball teams as w ere Eddie Crawford and Billy Kinard. Crawford, the retired senior associate athletic director, gave an excellent report to the group as did George Smith, the Director of the Loyalty Foundation/ Ray Poole, honored a year ago, was on hand with his bride Wanda. His nephew Paige Cothren missed the meeting as he completes another book.
Buddy Alliston came down from Memphis. He was the Outstanding Lineman in the Cotton Bowl victory over John Vaught's TCU alma mater while Day was the MVP and has been elected to the Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame.
Chancellor Robert Khayat and Warner Alford, director of Alumni Affairs, were roommates at Ole Miss. They chaired the other M Club meeting of the late Fifties and this group voted to include the 1961 and 1962 Rebels in 2008 when they gather next summer. At this party wee such stalwarts as Charlie Flowers, Jake Gibbs, and Billy Ray Adams, all All-Americans, Bobby Ray Franklin, Ralph (Catfish) Smith, Chico Taylor, Louis Guy. Richard (Possum) Price, Wes Sullivan, Art Doty, Wayne Terry Lamar, Charlie Duck, Allen Green, and others.
Frankie (Hobby Horse)( Halbert was also there. He was Vaught's good luck player who was included on the travel squad. One day Vaught was putting the travel list on the wall and Frankie asked the coach "what time are we leaving.Coach" Vaught replied: What do you mean WE?"
Halbert countered:" Aren't you going, Coach?" Vaught added Halbert to the list.
Kent Jr. Lovelace, a member of both groups, was also there. He had a blowout driving from the Coast near Florence. I asked him did he change the tire and he said he did not do manual labor. His pal, Warren (Beaux) Ball missed the meeting because he was enjoying his summer home in Colorado where his neighbors were Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford once lived. Frank told me at Wellington Mara's funeral in New York that he had moved.
Reunions of champion teams are terrific. 0-11 teams never have reunions. Ed Orgeron hopes that his current Rebels can develop in to championship teams. Seth Adams seems to have won the Quarterback job just as Farley Salmon did in 1948 when Ole Miss went 8-1 and was not invited to play in a Bowl game. Time will tell.
---30---
Upcoming All American Football Foundation Banquets
December 6, 2007
Newton, MA, Marriott Hotel
December 20, 2007
Las Vegas NV, Planet Hollywood Casino Resort Hotel
For reservations call 601-206-8877
Newton, MA, Marriott Hotel
December 20, 2007
Las Vegas NV, Planet Hollywood Casino Resort Hotel
For reservations call 601-206-8877
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